Security

PHP Augmented For Stability

Open source PHP language converts have been handed a new version release this August with around 20 bug fixes and a series of augmentations designed to address both security and stability.

The PHP development team confirms that PHP 5.5.2 includes a fix to a security issue in OpenSSL module (CVE-2013-4248) and resolution of the session fixation problem (CVE-2011-4718).

All users of PHP are encouraged to upgrade to this release — although it should also be said that there currently exists a number of releases that would be classified as "stable" including the 5.5, 5.4, and 5.3 PHP versions.

The CVE-2013-4113 security flaw is a memory heap corruption issue in PHP's XML parser which is said (in the case of a heap corruption flaw occurring) to be able to create a potential opportunity for a malicious hacker to run unauthorized code.

Other flaws such as the CVE-2013-4113 flaw were in fact recorded and reported earlier in the year and fixed in earlier versions of PHP, 5.5.1 and 5.3.27 versions to be specific.

The full ChangeLog can be found here. These PHP security updates have been undertaken under baseline vulnerability standards overseen by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST's) National Vulnerability Database and its CVSS Common Vulnerability Scoring System.

NOTE: The Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) provides an open framework for communicating the characteristics and impacts of IT vulnerabilities. Its quantitative model ensures repeatable accurate measurement while enabling users to see the underlying vulnerability characteristics that were used to generate the scores.

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